STAUFF in the O+P Lounge

Dr. Dominik F. P. Joachim www.oup-fluidtechnik.de O+P Fluidtechnik 2023/05 Sustainability will continue to grow in importance. Will excavators be powered by electricity or hydrogen in 2033? There is no general answer to this. In future, the choice of drive will also largely depend on the field of application. Imagine an excavator working around the clock to build a road in a largely undeveloped region of the world. A vehicle like that is likely to still be driven by an internal combustion engine in ten years‘ time. However, at the other end of the scale are smaller earthworks in a western European city centre etc. We can assume that a mini-exca- vator, that will only excavate small ditches for a couple of hours, will be electrically powered. In this latter case, elec- tric means that the pump is driven by a battery, but the actual power transmission will continue to be hydraulic. In between these two extremes lies a broad spectrum in which there is certain to be a role for hybrid machines. We cannot say with certainty today whether hydrogen tech- nology will prevail by 2033. It is a very promising future technology, but there is still so much investment needed in the infrastructure that I do not expect it to be fully opera- tional by 2033. What will Stauff products be able to do in ten years time? Many Stauff products are DIN-compliant products. For instance, our zinc/nickel coating is not just any old coating, but rather the Stauff zinc/nickel coating that enables us to exceed customer requirements and set standards in the global market. We will continue to align our product developments and services to the needs of original equip- ment manufacturers and specialist retailers. I believe that the requirements governing DIN products will continue to become even more exacting over the next ten years. “Simple” potential improvements are now a thing of the past. It’s now about the details. Stauff products will also continue to make the difference in ten years‘ time. www.stauff.com